s hair
till his task was done; _d_. 930.

HAROUN-AL-RASCHID ("Aaron the Orthodox or Just"), the most renowned
of the Abbaside caliphs; succeeded to the caliphate in 786 on the death
of his elder brother, El Hadi, and had for grand-vizier the Barmacide
Yahya, to whom with his four sons he committed the administration of
affairs, he the while making his court a centre of attraction to wise
men, scholars, and artists, so that under him Bagdad became the capital
of the civilised world; his glory was tarnished by one foul blot towards
the end of his reign, and that was the massacre out of jealousy of the
Barmacide family, members of which had contributed so much to his fame,
an act which he had soon occasion to repent, for it was followed by an
insurrection which cost him his life; the halo that invests his memory
otherwise was, however, more fabulous than real, and history shows him at
his best to have been avaricious, resentful, and cruel.

HARPIES, fabulous ravenous creatures, living in filth and defiling
everything they touch, with the head and breast of a woman, the wings and
claws of a bird, and a face pale with hunger, the personification of
whirlwinds and storms, conceived of as merely ravening, wasting powers.

HARRINGTON, JAMES, political writer; author of a political romance
entitled "The Commonwealth of Oceana," in which he argued that all secure
government must be based on property, and for a democracy on this basis
(1611-1677).

HARRIS, HOWEL, a noted Welsh Methodist, born at Trevecca, Brecon;
embracing Calvinism, he at the age of 21 became an itinerant preacher,
confining himself chiefly to Wales; in 1752 he took up his abode at
Trevecca, where he erected a large house to accommodate those who sought
his ministrations (1714-1773).

HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER, American writer, born in Georgia, U.S.;
author of "Uncle Remus," his chief work a study of negro folk-lore,
followed by interesting sketches and stories; _b_. 1848.

HARRIS, LUKE, founder of the "Brotherhood of the New Life," born in
Buckinghamshire, a spiritualistic Socialist; his system founded on
SWEDENBORGIANISM (q. v.) on the one hand and a form of communism
on the other, with a scriptural Christianity spiritualised as backbone;
the destiny of man he regards as angelhood, or a state of existence like
that of God, in which the unity of sex, or fatherhood and motherhood,
meet in one; the late Laurence Oliphant and the late John Pulsford we